If it's Pica, I'll eat my hat.

My one experience with it, when I was about four or five, I took a tablespoon into the yard, which was a dirty place, in a trailerhouse campground, with lots of kids. I ate two spoonsfull of that dirt and tried to coax my younger brother to do the same. That night, I had a mild bellyache for about 15 minutes, but otherwise was all right.

Hi edgar! I hope you made it through Rita okay!

What possessed you to do such a thing as eat dirt?

I've heard that eating dirt can be a sign of vitamin deficiencies. Do you think it might have been some kind of instinctive thing?

I've read that in Uganda there is actually a kind of dirt that is sold as food.

I've eaten tofu twice but it wasn't intentional, I was tricked.

I was too young to know why I ate dirt. Rita in Houston was mostly a dud. The poor folks east of here are the ones to suffer.

<snork>

dys, I feel that way about tofu too -- except when it is in that soup at the Japanese restaurant. I like it then.

I just got back from Texas on Wednesday, edgar, so I was there when things were nuts. I have one sister in Houston -- she stayed put and I was worried sick about her.

Mr. Noddy has a branch of his family with a couple of so-called pica kids, but those two were pretty skilled about getting attention, whether or not it was convenient.

For what it's worth, I'm a cruncher of ice cubes and also prone to anemia, but I crunch even without anemia.

Tufu? At one point in my life I thought I might be more spiritually aware if I enjoyed tufu. I accepted unenlightenment as my destiny.

Never had the nerve to try tofu.

Don't forget eating soap flakes... Isn't it a potassium deficiency?

http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic1798.htm

Causes: Although the etiology of pica is unknown, numerous hypotheses have been advanced to explain the phenomenon, ranging from psychosocial causes to causes of purely biochemical origin. Cultural, socioeconomic, organic, and psychodynamic factors have been implicated.

Nutritional deficiencies
Although firm empirical data supporting any of the nutritional deficiency etiologic hypotheses are absent, deficiencies in iron, calcium, zinc, and other nutrients (eg, thiamine, niacin, vitamins C and D) have been associated with pica.
In some patients with malnutrition who eat clay, iron deficiencies have been diagnosed, but the direction of this causal association is unclear. Whether the iron deficiency prompted the eating of clay or the inhibition of iron absorption caused by the ingestion of clay produced the iron deficiency is not known.

Cultural and familial factors
In particular, the ingestion of clay or soil may be culturally based and is regarded as acceptable by various social groups.
Parents may proactively teach their children to eat these and other substances.
Pica behavior also may be learned via modeling and reinforcement.

Stress: Maternal deprivation, parental separation, parental neglect, child abuse, and insufficient amounts of parent/child interactions have been associated with pica.

Low socioeconomic status
The ingestion of paint is most common in children from low socioeconomic families and is associated with lack of parental supervision.

Malnutrition and hunger also may result in pica.

Nondiscriminating oral behavior: In individuals with mental retardation, pica has been suggested to result from an inability to discriminate between food and nonfood items; however, this theory is not supported by findings of selection of pica items and the often aggressive search for nonfood items of choice.

Learned behavior: In individuals with mental retardation and developmental disabilities in particular, the traditional view is that the occurrence of pica is a learned behavior maintained by the consequences of that behavior.

Underlying biochemical disorder: The association of pica, iron deficiency, and a number of pathophysiologic states with decreased activity of the dopamine system has raised the possibility of a correlation between diminished dopaminergic neurotransmission and the expression and maintenance of pica; however, specific pathogenesis resulting from any underlying biochemical disorders has not been identified empirically.

Other risk factors
Parent/child psychopathology
Family disorganization
Environmental deprivation
Pregnancy
Epilepsy

Brain damage

Mental retardation

Developmental disorders

Fascinating stuff.

I worked with one man who definetly displayed pica. He would go after specific things all the time: dirt, sand, and leaves off trees. He also would eat things like raw potatoes and meat, produce whole, and with fried chicken etc. he would chew up and eat the bones if you allowed him to. Obviously, I didn't serve him meals with bones!

He racked up a lot of those on the list though: epilepsy, mental retardation, environmental deprivation and past abuse. We had to watch his nutrition constantly because his body was under so much stress/change all the time.

Anyways; I'm curious what causes this.

Boom: in Uganda they actually sell the dirt?! Do they eat it just like normal food or is it a survival food - like something when there is nothing else? I've never heard of that!

It makes a lot of sense that people would start eating dirt and such when they need iron/ other minerals. Dirt has those things in a concentrated form. So interesting, this pica pheonomenon is.

I think it's fascinating too!

I wasn't aware that there was any such thing as Pica until I tried to find some connection between ice eating and iron deficiency.

It doesn't seem that there has been much research on it at all.

Ice eating certainly seems less bothersome than some of the other substances one could ingest. Heck, maybe this girl will grow up to be like Noddy! That would be wonderful.

I just came across a very brief mention of Uganda dirt:



Eating dirt, sand, leaves and bones sounds like it could be very dangerous! One site I read said that kids who exhibit Pica are more apt to ingest poisons since they don't seem to discriminate between food and non-food items.

Remember the kid who always ate the paste during art class? What about J.D. Salinger's reported pee drinking?

I read a report of some kind once that said drinking the second urine of the day is one of the best sources of minerals. I don't intend to try it, just thought you would want to know. - Not that there's anything wrong with that.

LOL. New health product: yellow snowcones.

When I was little, I loved to eat dirt and mud. To me it tasted yummy. I would eat it in front of other little children and it never bothered me. Don't know why I ever did it and my parents couldn't control it and decided it wasn't hurting me so they just let me be. It was one of those things I just outgrew. Don't know if it nutrition related or not - I would suspect not as I was a very good eater as a child (except milk - hated milk). And certainly not stress - as my life as a child was pretty stress free with more than enough parental attention from both mom and dad. Honestly I think I ate because I liked the taste (and maybe it did get odd reactions from other kids).

As far as Tofu - love it! Maybe it is a result of my dirt thing.

Interesting, Linkat!

Some of the stuff I've been reading say that some people just like the flavor or the texture that the substance provides so your "I just liked it" rings really true.

I wonder what might have happened if your parent's had tried to control it.

It seems that there are so many things now that are labeled "disorder" that previously were just considered quirky. Like Asperger's syndrome, or Pica, and probably a lot of other things.

If this same thing occurred today, I would probably be having regular meetings with a social worker and would then really end up with serious issues. Thankfully my parents just figured I would eventually be embarassed about it or out grow it so they did not worry. And that is exactly what happened.

Funny thing is I can remember the texture and taste and I did like the texture also. Why else would you eat something - because you like it. And yes, I did like to chew on bones too. I tried dog biscuits once (actually when I was an adult) - saw Mel Gibson do it in a movie. I was curious if it tasted any good - it didn't.

Dog biscuits don't taste good? Oh, no, poor Pacco.

I guess I am surprised about the ice. Always learning something new here on a2k, despite myself. I know you're not supposed to chomp down on it, it frightens your teeth. I think sucking on ice is a fine thing to do. I've only been anemic once, and it wasn't from any bouts with ice - otherwise my iron levels and red cell counts, red cell shapes, have been just swell.

In your list, boomer, you mentioned starch. Starch, as in starching shirts? Yaacck. But then, carbs, any way you can get 'em.

On dirt, I understand more close to the earth cultures using it for minerals, just as we get minerals from various waters. We often get some dirt on our foods as it is... spinach crunch...

As to trying it as a child, a child is exploring, and maybe it does taste good. Is it salty? Is sand salty? Salt is a need.. though in the US a lot of us have too much of it.

I guess the main deal is the lack of ability make distinction re food staples and matter like paper - cellulose, as a brain function gap.

But basic food exploration is very primitive... I have long wondered who ate the first pea, tried the first Laurus nobilis leaf and why.

Me too, osso. Wondered more about coffee than anything else. I suppose you get real hungry and try the nice berries. They taste like crap. So what do you do? Without a second thought, roast them, grind them up, and make a decoction in boiling water. Yeah, sure.

Tree leaves aren't very good, by the way. We have a weed called lambs quarters in abundance. Good right off the plant, and better than than store bought greens in a salad. By now, they've all bolted. You need to catch them in spring or early summer.

Right, I remember bolting greens from LA. Gotta plant them early..